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Bluesky

Last updated by Simon Späti

Twitter alternative. Created by the original founder of Twitter Jack Dorsey.

The Bluesky (open source) implementation of PDS uses SQLite per user.

Check out how it’s built on Data Engineering Whitepapers, helped by Martin Kleppmann.

The code is open-source on

# History

Jack Dorsey introduced the Bluesky project back in 2019 while he was still Twitter CEO. At the time, he said Twitter would be funding a “small independent team of up to five open source architects, engineers, and designers,” charged with building a decentralized standard for social media, with the original goal that Twitter would adopt this standard itself. But that was before Elon Musk bought the platform, so Bluesky is completely divorced from Twitter.

As of May 2024, Dorsey is  no longer on Bluesky’s board. Bluesky is now an independent public benefit corporation led by  CEO Jay Graber. What is Bluesky? Everything to know about the X competitor.

More on Inside Bluesky’s Engineering Culture.

Initial announcement: x.com

# Numbers

2024-11-20

CEO of new social media company competing with X describes users’ experiences - YouTube

# Tools

As an open network, there are tools popping up every day. Here’s my try to collect the most important.

# Discovery & Network Tools

# Analytics & Stats

# Migration & Import Tools

# TUIs

  • bskytui: A TUI for Bluesky
  • Termsky: another one, log in with ssh termsky.app

# Other Lists:

Also, check export or firehoses to extract data from AT Protocol, the underlying protocol on Bluesky. I listed them on AT Protocol.

# SQLite

I heard Bluesky is based on SQLite; here is some background about this. Check more on Personal Data Server (PDS).

# Data Engineering

My curated Data Engineering list on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ssp.sh/lists/3l6zjwqkxeh2r

# Features

Bluesky search features:

  • Specific phrase: Use quotes ("hello world") - includes alt text matches
  • Hashtags: Use # prefix (e.g., #hello)
  • User mentions:
    • @username or to:username or mentions:username
    • mentions:me for posts mentioning you
    • "@username" for literal text matches
  • Posts from user:
    • from:username
    • from:me for your own posts
  • Combined search: Can mix keywords (e.g., to:username from:me)
  • URL search:
    • Paste full URL to find matching posts
    • domain:example.com for all posts linking to a domain

Source: Tips and Tricks for Bluesky Search .

# Misc

# Referrers (Analytics, Proxy)

Bluesky does not show on the Analytic, e.g. on GoatCounter it shows off as Unknown:

The reason is they didn’t implement a forward proxy. See details here: github.com/bluesky-soci… In my experience, Bluesky leads more traffic as it allows links, unlike Twitter.

It was later revered here (In case you wonder why it was merged).

They implemented an added referral link once ( Pass referrer on native (with an opt out) by gaearon · Pull Request #6648 · bluesky-social/social-app · GitHub), but reverted it shortly after. Bsky post

# Further Reading


Origin:
References: Twitter
Created 2024-10-21